Annual Checkup

It was surprising to see how the U.S. was actually pretty low compared to other countries in health care activities. Because the U.S. spends so much money towards healthcare, I expected the numbers of health care activities to be higher. The Doctor consultations per capita and average length of stay for acute care is lower than average. This was not expected because the U.S. is a very developed country and has a lot of concentration on medical care. This obviously shows the medical system in the country is not so great. Japan is the highest in both doctor consultations per capita and length of stay which I think is important because it shows the health care system greatly cares for citizens. Doctor consultation is important because it shows people are getting the right information and being checked up on and getting illnesses treated. Having a longer length of stay for acute care shows the treatments are more thorough and the patients are receiving better care.

It was not surprising that the U.S. was the highest on spending on healthcare. The U.S.'s spending is clearly above the average yet there are many problems in the country. It is very questionable where all the money goes towards as the healthcare is clearly not perfect. All the money seems to be wasted and people are taxed greatly for nothing. If the U.S. spends the most on healthcare, you would expect the U.S. to be higher in most of the other healthcare measure rankings.

U.S. has the highest ranking in obesity. I would want to change this factor to have less obesity in the U.S. Changing this would have a greater impact on the public's health because obesity leads to many health problems as taught in the lecture. Obesity can lead to heart diseases, stroke, diabetes, and many more. The number one cause of death in the country is heart disease so lessening obesity could potentially save many lives. Also as mentioned in the lecture before, people who lost a little weight with a healthier lifestyle compared to the people who took medication for preventing diabetes had a far more positive outcome. An intervention would be changing the sources of food in neighborhoods with greater poverty. In poorer neighborhoods, there is a greater amount of fast food chain stores and less markets for healthier food. This leads to a greater amount of obesity in impoverished neighborhoods. Healthier food also tends to be more expensive, so by changing the price and having less fast food restaurants in poorer neighborhoods can lead to less obesity.